A brief Tutorial - Some WIN9X Speed Optimisations

Some Minor CD-ROM Optimisations

Last Updated 27 Jun 2002

WIN9X allows the CD-ROM to be optimized. Here are some different minor optimisations. These are only really worth bothering with reducing the Real Memory consumed if you are using a minimal amount of RAM. These suggestions originated when 4X drives were considered "fast"!

Making 2x Speed CD-ROMs or slower appear faster.

• First Click Start then Select Settings and then Click the Control Panel, then Double Click on System
• In the System Menu, Click The Performance Tab. Then Click File System and the click the CD-ROM tab.
• Select Optimize Pattern and put it to Quad Speed CD-ROM or Faster.

This will mean that more CDROM read ahead caching buffer is allocated, which may help to get the data off the drive and into RAM in the background while you are processing the data before the next CDROM access is needed. But these days you can buy faster CD-ROMs cheaply. This suggestion originated when 4X drives were "fast", with a 24X (which may be either IDE or SCSI), you are best to put the setting to Quad Speed, but WIN9X should set this up when it recognises your drive with Plug and Play during Installation.

If you have 32Mb or more of RAM, you don't really need to bother with these next two. These next two will only be worth considering if you are running WIN9X with minimum RAM.

Making (slightly) More RAM available to WIN9X by the CD-ROM Cache.

When you don't use CD's very often, but need all the RAM you can get, follow the first two steps in the first CD-ROM optimisation, but set the CD-ROM cache value to whatever lower value you want. This will allow you to have (slightly on the order of a couple of Kb) more memory when using CDs. Also remember that the cache will turn on whenever a CD is in the drive and not just when it is playing. If you have more than 16Mb, you probably won't notice much. This suggestion originated when 4X drives were "fast", with a 24X or faster (which may be either IDE or SCSI), you probably won't notice it.

Making Video or Games appear Smoother on Fast CD-ROM drives.

This suggestion is similar to the previous one. Follow the first two steps in the previous instructions and then select the cache and set it to the minimum of 0. This may allow smoother play, (slightly) more RAM in which to run the programs, but a little longer load time. This suggestion originated when 4X drives were "fast", with a 24X or faster (which may be either IDE or SCSI), you probably won't notice it. If you have a large amount of RAM, it's also not worth bothering about.

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